Review: Apple's redesigned, late 2009 13-inch MacBook

Last year, Apple incited irritation when it removed FireWire from the 13-inch aluminum MacBook, which has since been renamed as a MacBook Pro and regained its missing FireWire port. The white MacBook has always supplied a FireWire port, but now in its unibody redesign it has lost it, restoring the company's position that consumers don't need it. FireWire still does things USB can't do, so this is disappointing to see, but anyone who uses FireWire is actually quite likely to be in the group that would opt for the aluminum 13-inch MacBook Pro instead.

If a Mac notebook model is destined to lack FireWire, at least it makes more sense to have it missing on the low end model aimed at students on a budget. Also missing is the SD card slot that showed up on MacBook Pros this summer as a replacement for their ExpressCard slot. While this consumer-oriented feature makes sense on the MacBook, it appears it didn't make the feature list due to space constraints. There's two USB ports, so users who want to connect to their camera's SD card will still be able to do what most Mac users have always needed to do: use a USB adapter. The other alternative is to use Eye-Fi's WiFi-enabled SD card to transfer pictures without handling a card at all.

The new model apparently still provides no support for audio output over its Mini DisplayPort connector (which is supported in the DisplayPort specification), so unlike Apple TV there's no way to output both audio and video over the same cable in the manner of HDMI. That necessitates either using a hybrid Mini DisplayPort plus USB cable for driving an HDMI display with audio, or using a separate audio cable from the MacBook's headphone audio output using an analog cable or digital optical TOSLINK cable for audio.

The MacBook retains the excellent audio out options that support both headphone and digital optical mini S/PDIF output, although it does not support S/PDIF audio input on a dedicated port. The headphone jack also supports iPhone-style headphones with an integrated mic and a playback control button. That's a great feature for anyone doing iChat audio or video conferencing or using another VoIP program on the go, as the notebook's built in microphone makes it hard to isolate background noise, and most mics and headsets designed for generic PCs lack the higher line level output required by previous Macs' mic input port.

The MacBook's MagSafe power adapter is 60 watts, and uses the compact style connector of the MacBook Air, although it also works fine with existing adapters that shipped with other MacBook models and the connector used by the 24" LED Cinema Display.

The new MacBook offers the same CPU/GPU and standard RAM as the entry level 13-inch MacBook Pro: a 2.26GHz Intel P7550 Penryn Core 2 Duo CPU paired with NVIDIA's MCP79MX controller with integrated GPU, which Apple calls by its marketing name: the 9400M. That chip also provides chipset controller functions (such as RAM, PCIe, SATA, and USB interfaces). Apple uses faster DDR3 "PC3-8500" RAM, which runs at 1067MHz along with the FSB for communications between the CPU, RAM, and the integrated GPU.

The MacBook's GPU supports NVIDIA's PureVideo HD for hardware acceleration of H.264 and MPEG-2. The primary purpose for NVIDIA including this on the GPU is to support Blu-ray, which the new notebook does not support. However, Apple has now added a hardware support component to QuickTime to enable any application that uses QuickTime to play MPEG-2 (DVD Player) or MPEG-4 (iTunes) content to do so more efficiently. Farming video decoding off to the GPU rather than the CPU means better battery life and cooler operation.

The performance numbers presented by Primate Lab's Geekbench 2.1 (below) indicate that the new MacBook's performance is very close to last years MacBook Pro models, and nearly as fast as a two year old desktop iMac, but not nearly the speed of a Mac Pro workstation. The Core 2 Duo MacBook is a 3-5x jump over performance of a three year old PowerBook G4. Longer bars are better.

The New MacBook in Review

The new unibody MacBook is better built, more attractive, thinner, stronger and more rigid, with a nicer feel to the tighter-fitting display lid. It delivers a nice balance between weight and performance, using a built-in battery that delivers long life without needing to carry around spares.

The glossy screen will not appeal to some users, but the display itself looks great, and is a significant jump up in quality compared to the previous MacBooks. This model offer a minor jump in overall performance. If you're in the market for a new MacBook, the new model makes a great, well rounded upgrade.

Compared to the 13-inch MacBook Pro, the choice is pretty simple: the cheaper, plastic consumer-oriented version that drops a few hardware features (including FireWire, SD reader, and the backlit keyboard) and upgrade options (a max of 4 rather than 8GB of RAM, and a slightly faster CPU) or $200 more for the aluminum finished, compromise-free Pro.

Below is a table of MacBook prices from leading Apple Resellers that was extracted from AppleInsider's MacPriceGuide. Currently, OnSale.com is offering the lowest price on the new notebook at $899.18 after a mail-in-rebate and exclusive 3% discount available only to AppleInsider readers. However, this coupon expires on Oct 31st (tomorrow) and won't return until some time next year.

To see the 3 percent discount and achieve the final price of $899.18, you must first add the MacBook to your shopping cart. The 3% discount is reflected as "Instant Discount(s)" during checkout, after the items have been placed in your shopping cart.

For similar offers on the remainder of Apple's Mac product line, please see our full-fledged Mac Price Guide.

My 2007 macbook starts looking better and better. No shinyness, no lid falling on my head, I got firewire 400 and audio out, as well as an external battery charge indicator. My batter is at 438 cycles at 98% health. This thing continues to not give an SD card, and no backlit, so really I am only missing DDR3 and 9400M. I think for my upgrade I am gonna look for the model just before this one, which had the same design as the one I have now...

The hard drive and improved video card on this machine at this price point for a mac, makes it a no brainer, meaning it's a good buy for me ... however, seeing how the pro is $200 more with less finger print and dirt frenzy glossiness ... it makes it a no brainer to go for the aluminum with the backlit keyboard

My 2007 macbook starts looking better and better. No shinyness, no lid falling on my head, I got firewire 400 and audio out, as well as an external battery charge indicator. My batter is at 438 cycles at 98% health. This thing continues to not give an SD card, and no backlit, so really I am only missing DDR3 and 9400M. I think for my upgrade I am gonna look for the model just before this one, which had the same design as the one I have now...

The lid won't fall on your head so long as your not a gymist trying to Twit while upside down... It's in the article.

I think you fall more into the MBP 13". I've used one and the hinge since Sept 09' is strong enough to NOT bonk you on the head. The one I was using was a late Sept 09 purchased unit (about 3 weeks ago).

Not sure what the fuss over an external battery indicator is. When your done with your laptop you should charge the battery (and based on your battery stats you are doing this) to keep the battery in perfect health. Leaving a battery uncharged for long periods will damage it. Just get into the habit of docking it to the charger once your done. And with a 7+ hr battery life it goes longer in between charges anyway. How long does a MacBook really take to wake up for you to read how much battery is left? Such a PITA isn't it.

Not sure the DDR3 does much as for performance. My wife's MB with nVidia chipset clocked in at 2.0ghz but DDR2 800mhz ram shows similar xbench score as my Mini with nVidia, 2.0ghz and DDR3 ram. The only real difference is I have a 7200rpm drive and she's on the Hitachi Ultra Low power 5400rpm drive (tip: this drive will increase battery life by about 30mins on a Mac, only 10 mins when running windows). I'm sure there is a diff but in Photoshop, Filemaker, and 4D there's no speed issue... Maybe if we compared it to the iMac but that's unfair seeing how it has 8gb of DDR3 and a pair of 2.93ghz CPU's... It's almost twice the speed... It has a Raptor 300gb drive too...

In the article it mentions "aerodynamic curves". Wouldn't that technically only apply if it was flying through the air? I assume that since these are new machines it would be a while before someone felt the urge to throw one?

Why ONLY white? Would it really pain Jobs & co. to release a black version at the same price point at the same time? Or perhaps black instead of white for a change? So it's either go white or pay $200+ for the pro? That glossy white is just god awful IMO. Bring on the black version please.